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If Maurice Jones-Drew forces issue, Jags must trade him

2 cents

We're about to find out who has the most willpower.

Jaguars training camp opens Friday and with it comes one of the biggest questions of the offseason.

Running back Maurice Jones-Drew has been a no-show in the Jaguars' offseason workouts because he wants a new contract. Speculation, recently from former Jaguars back Fred Taylor on 1010XL, is that the situation is not close to a resolution.

If Jones-Drew's approach is that he won't play again unless he gets a big pay raise, then trade him.

Work the phones and get him out of town quick.

The last thing that a new coaching staff and a new owner need is this kind of cloud hovering over the team for any sort of time. Marshall Faulk forced his way out of Indianapolis during the middle of his career in a contract squabble, and the Jaguars would be foolish not to explore a similar path with Jones-Drew if he chooses to sit out in a protest about money.

Jones-Drew's own words to the NFL Network on June 20 — "This is the side of the NFL that's just as real as Sunday" — were prophetic.

It is strictly business, which is why the Jaguars can't budge.

Jones-Drew is still an elite NFL back. He led the league with 1,606 rushing yards last season.

But I also think that his best years are behind, not in front of him.

Unless Jones-Drew proves to be a rare exception to a trend that's been proven time and again about the decline of backs with his kind of mileage, then it's a no-brainer.

Jones-Drew might have played his way into a new contract, but there's no way that the Jaguars should give him one.

Star safety strikes out in baseball

Shaq Thompson can breathe a little easier now — he gets to keep his $45,000 signing bonus even if he never returns to baseball.

Boston Red Sox fans are probably praying that he never does.

The five-star safety from Grant High School (Sacramento, Calif.) is headed to the University of Washington on a football scholarship, with a dubious streak following him.

Selected by the Red Sox in the 18th round of last June’s draft, Thompson signed with the team with hopes of being a two-sport star. Boston was rewarded with perhaps the grandest display of awfulness since Shaquille O’Neal starred in “Kazaam.”

Thompson finished his stint in the Gulf Coast League by going 0 for 39. No big deal, right? Plenty of pro baseball players have gone into hitless funks like that and recovered. Not Thompson. He put the ball in play twice and struck out 37 times. That works out to $1,216 per strikeout.

The worst part of it was that Thompson wasn’t facing major-league pitching, but fellow draft picks and guys not too far removed from high school, and he barely had the skill to foul pitches off.

Stick to football, Shaq, or come back to baseball and keep us all laughing.